May 9th 2022

Meet the IES Team: Birajan Bhandari, Senior Building Performance Engineer

Meet the IES Team: Birajan Bhandari, Senior Building Performance Engineer

Next up in our 'Meet the Team' series, we sat down for a quick Q&A with Birajan Bandhari, a Senior Building Performance Engineer, based in California, to share his experience of working with IES.


1.    Tell us a bit about your background and when you first came to join IES.

I have a B. Tech in Electrical Engineering from India and came to the US for an MS in Energy Systems Engineering in 2016. I Joined IES in September of 2018 as a Building Energy Analysis Intern. This internship then turned into a full-time job in 2019. 

2.    What is your current role at IES? 

Currently, I am working as a Senior Building Performance Engineer, based in California. 

My primary job is to provide training and assist new users of our VE software, which include architects, engineers, and energy modelers. In the past 3.5 years, I have had the opportunity to train over 200 new users. 

3.    Were you involved in any of our Internship, Graduate Apprenticeship, or other recruitment programmes? If so, can you tell us a bit more about your experience?

Yes, I had initially joined IES as a Building Energy Analysis Intern. During my internship, I learned the basic working of the VE software.

4.    What does a typical working day involve for you?

I wear many hats within the IES US office. 

My morning generally starts with a call with the development team in Glasgow or Ireland, to discuss any issues or development requests we have for them. This is followed by assisting clients with their queries and troubleshooting the issues they are facing, this may be over an email or a training session. 

5.    Are there any particularly interesting projects you have worked on that you could tell us about?

A couple of projects come to mind:

a)    Title 24 development. For about 2 years (of 3.5 years I have been at IES) I worked on the development of the Title 24 compliance tool. This gave me a unique opportunity to look at how the VE is working under the hood from a software perspective and made me appreciate all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes.

b)    Water-Energy Nexus tool. Back in 2020, I worked on the development of the backend calculation for the water-energy nexus tool that was recently released with VE 2022, so I'm really excited to get clients' feedback on the tool.

6.    What is the best thing about working for IES?

The work culture, flexible work schedule, and the fact that you get to work with people from around the globe are some of the things that I really like about IES. 

7.    What important skills have you learned whilst working here?

Time management and communication skills are some of the important skills that I have learned whilst working at IES. Also, the work requires us to keep up to date on what is happening in the industry. 

8.    What advice would you give others considering a position with us?

If you are an individual who is concerned about climate change and want to use your knowledge for the betterment of the globe then come join us at IES!

9.    Is there anything else you’d like to share about your experience working at IES?

Working with IES there is always something new to learn from clients, colleagues, etc. There is always:

a)    an architect who will have a unique design that they want to model;
b)    a mechanical engineer with a unique HVAC system that they want to model in VE, or;
c)    an energy modeler who will have a creative approach to decarbonization and electrification.

...so, there is always something new to learn every day here at IES.

Interested in joining our team? Head over to our careers page where you can check out all our latest vacancies, or send a speculative CV to careers@iesve.com